—so how much more when they pertain to legal rulings and the like?

Know, then, that anyone who does this falls into one of two categories:

1. He knows that the ḥadiths in question are weak yet fails to point that out. Such a person has deceived the Muslims and is unquestionably included in the aforementioned threat. Ibn Ḥibbān said in al-Ḍuʿafāʾ, 1/7–8:
   “This report proves that a transmitter who knowingly relates something unsound that has been fabricated about the Prophet is counted among the liars. In fact, the wording of the report is even sterner, for the Prophet ﷺ said, ‘Whoever relates a report from me while believing it to be false…,’ and he did not say ‘while being certain it is false.’ Thus anyone who is unsure whether what he is narrating is sound or unsound comes under the scope of this statement.”
   Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī cited these words in al-Sārim al-Munkī, pp. 165–166, and endorsed them.

2. Or he does not know that the reports are weak; he is still sinful for daring to attribute them to the Prophet ﷺ without knowledge. The Prophet ﷺ said, “It is enough falsehood for a man to relate everything he hears.”¹ Hence he shares in the sin of the one who lies about the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, for the Prophet indicated that whoever reports everything he hears—or, by the same token, everything he writes—will inevitably fall into lying about him. He therefore becomes one of two liars: the first is the forger, and the second is the one who circulates it. Ibn Ḥibbān also said, 1/9: “This report warns a person not to narrate everything he hears until he knows with certainty that it is authentic.”